Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Long Island City

Have you ever worked on a crafts project at home and ended up with excess buttons, ribbon, paper or yarn? Have you ever toiled at a company that has supplies or office furniture that it no longer uses? Comment.

Richmond Hill

Edna remembers that in March 1964 she attended a dinner in Terrace on the Park in Flushing Meadows Corona Park and while looking down at the site of the World’s Fair being built saw construction cranes everywhere. The site was not finished yet one of the speakers, perhaps Robert Moses, said it would be finished in time for opening day. Comment.

Flushing

Letters

On April 11, a neighbor of mine collapsed on Burden Crescent, a short distance from Jamaica Hospital, and 911 was called by an eyewitness of the fall at 4:45 p.m. I witnessed a Wyckoff Hospital ambulance arriving at the scene at 4:55 p.m., 10 minutes later. Comments (2).

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Whitestone

It was spring 1939 with the outbreak of World War II only months away, but President Franklin Roosevelt took time out to open the World’s Fair in a motorcade that passed over the shining new Bronx-Whitestone Bridge. Comment.

Rosedale

Letters

Brian and Amy are your typical middle-class New Yorkers. They have worked hard to build a comfortable life for their three children in Hicksville, L.I., and hoped to remain there to be near family. Comment.

Flushing

Robert Moses’ uncompromising attitude toward opposition to everything from freeways to tunnels made him a villain to many neighborhood activists and he left an enduring mark on the landscape of Queens. Comments (3).

New Voices

A month after the results of the Specialized High School Admission Test, the momentum to reform the examination continues to build. As only marginal numbers of African Americans and Hispanics gain admission to the city’s most selective high schools, a lawsuit headed by the NAACP, as well as comments from elected officials, have cast a spotlight on the test and test prep centers, many of which serve Queens neighborhoods. Comments (3).

Letters

In response to the editorial published in the April 4-10 edition of the Bayside Times, we feel it is imperative to rebut some of the points made regarding horse-drawn carriages in New York City. Comments (2).

Ridgewood

RIDGEWOOD — A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 10 years in prison April 10 after pleading guilty to stealing thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, cameras and computer equipment from nearly a dozen homes in Ridgewood, Forest Hills, Ozone Park and Howard Beach, the Queens DA said. Comment.

Letters

In response to your April 4-10 editorial “Horse Sense,” back in the 19th century, the horse carriages were not competing with cars, buses and taxis on city streets. The horses were confined to Central Park. Comment.

Bayside

On Monday, May 1, 1939, the headline in The New York Times read: “President Roosevelt Opens fair As a Symbol of Peace.” Roosevelt in his first public utterance since German Chancellor Adolf Hitler had virtually rejected his plan for peace in the next decade, dedicated the fair to uniting the nations of the Western Hemisphere — to encouraging peace and good will among nations. He voiced the hope that “time would break down the barriers to tranquillity on the Continent.” Comment.

East Elmhurst

LONG ISLAND CITY — An East Elmhurst man is facing more than a dozen charges of possessing child porn after workers at a Best Buy in Long Island City allegedly found pornographic images of kids on a laptop he brought into the store for repairs, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. Comment.

The Civic Scene

The Queens Civic Congress is an umbrella organization of approximately 100 civic and co-op associations in Queens. The goal of the QCC is to maintain the quality of life for Queens residents. While it supports the general idea of providing more affordable housing, it opposes the proposals which would legalize the currently illegal basement/cellar apartments which some people build. Comments (1).

Friday, April 18, 2014

Pomonok

NYCHA officials announced they are reviewing certain aspects of their so-called “rightsizing” policy after a grilling by City Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) at an oversight hearing last week. Comments (4).

Jamaica

The search for a gunman who allegedly hit a 13-year-old Brooklyn boy in the eye with a stray bullet earlier this week led investigators to a basement in Jamaica Thursday where police tracked down a 21-year-old they were calling a person of interest. Comments (2).

Woodside

Elected officials in western Queens have lost a three-month battle with the city Department of Education and nearly 250 incoming kindergartners at PS 11 in Woodside will be bused 3 miles away every school day beginning this fall. Comment.

South Jamaica

Come this summer, the residents of South Jamaica’s Baisley Park Houses will have something else to celebrate at their annual fete: a new basketball court and playground redesigned from the ground up. Comments (2).

Jamaica

The MTA recently bought up a handful of properties adjacent to the South Jamaica bus depot, which it has been hoping to expand for years, but until the agency can come up with the needed capital funds, construction plans will sit as idle as the buses parked along Merrick Boulevard. Comments (3).

Flushing

Ask just about anyone who visited the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows Corona Park what they remember eating, and you’ll get the same answer—Belgian waffles. This gussied up breakfast food was, indeed, the iconic comestible of the fest. But contrary to the commonly held belief of Queens loyalists, they were not invented for that event. Comment.

Woodhaven

Woodhaven leaders hope a wrecking ball bound for a partially collapsed Jamaica Avenue building can bring the block back to its foundation as a neighborhood nexus complete with a senior center and volunteer ambulance corps. Comments (1).

Little Neck

News that the popular watchmaking company E. Gluck Corp. has finalized a deal to relocate from Long Island City to Little Neck has some northeast Queens residents opposing changes the warehouse will bring to the neighborhood. Comments (12).

Rockaway Beach

A Queens police officer who died after he was critically injured responding to a Brooklyn blaze will be promoted posthumously to the rank of first-grade detective, Mayor Bill de Blasio told mourners at a somber service for Dennis Guerra in Rockaway Beach Monday. Comment.

Jamaica

Several weeks after six out of seven of the borough’s state senators penned their names to a Queens Library reform bill, Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) introduced his own proposal that one-ups his mainline Democratic colleagues. Comment.

Long Island City

When Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks were returning back to the East River for the first time in five years, he made it clear it was all about the numbers and inclusion. Comment.

Long Island City

The organizers of two major Long Island City springtime events were relieved and grateful that the MTA reworked its plans to provide weekend service on the No. 7 subway line during the weekend of May 17-18. Comment.

Ozone Park

The city Campaign Finance Board fined mayoral hopeful John Catsimatidis $11,473 for failing to identify himself as the financier of mailings criticizing City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) and submitting false documents to the board during the 2013 election season. Comments (1).

Astoria

As part of the celebrations surrounding the 50th and 75th anniversaries of the Queens World’s Fairs, the Greater Astoria Historical Society has dug deep into its treasure trove for a new exhibit detailing both events. Comment.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Astoria

An Astoria man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the strangling and beating death of a former girlfriend, Danielle Thomas, in June 2012, the Queens district attorney said. Comments (2).

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Jamaica

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrested a Trinidadian earlier this month who allegedly tried to sneak through Kennedy Airport with $70,000 worth of heroin hidden in his underwear. Comments (4).

Monday, April 14, 2014

Rockaway Beach

It was a somber sea of blue on Beach 84th Street Monday morning as loved ones and colleagues attended a funeral for a Queens police officer who died after he was critically injured responding to a Brooklyn blaze. Comment.

Long Island City

The Fourth of July fireworks are coming back to the Queens waterfront for the first time in five years. Macy’s annual extravaganza will be launched from barges on the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday afternoon. Comments (2).

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Far Rockaway

Charges against a Brooklyn teen who allegedly set a fire that led to a Far Rockaway police officer’s death have been upgraded, the Brooklyn district attorney said, three days before the officer’s funeral is to be held in the Rockaways. Comment.